Silver Slivers
by Ryka Spar
Summary: This is a companion piece to 'Silver Streams.' It will contain things I cut, don't think fits in with the flow, or otherwise just want to mess around with.
1. Blew it out of Proportion

This - as stated in the summary - is a companion piece to Silver Streams. Things included will be things I remove, think doesn't fit in the flow, or stuff I just wanna have fun with!

This one is the training scene I mention in chapter four. You also - well I wouldn't say meet - but obtain knowledge of another 'pet' of Ai's.

I don't own Naruto!

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Silver Slivers

Ai had just finished her stretches when Iruka walked in. "Care to join us?" Hayate offered. "You can put Ai through her paces."

She gave him a sour look. "Are you saying you _don't_ put me through my paces?"

"It's good to change opponents now and again. Keep you learning different tactics."

"Sure, I can help," Iruka complied, doing his own stretches. "You learn that Transformation Jutsu yet?"

"Please," Ai scowled, "I'm perfect the way I look now." He laughed.

"I'm not saying you aren't, but it's an important skill for ninja to –"

"Ah, but you're forgetting I'm not one of those.

"You may recall that I have been restricted on what I can and can't teach Ai." Hayate imputed from where he was settling on the sideline.

"Right," Iruka murmured.

"Plus, I might blow the roof off the building if I tried."

"You give yourself too little credit. Your control is better than that." Ai shrugged, not fully believing that.

Iruka didn't give her any warning before he attacked, hurling his arm forward, flinging out a kunai. Ai brought her arm up, sweeping it in an arc, the kunai clanged as it was deflected off her hidden Tsukikage. She adjusted her grip on it before tossing it high into the air. Ai could see the soaring sword's path, but Iruka wouldn't be able to. She charged him engaging him in taijutsu briefly before hitting the ground in a roll to get behind him. As he turned, Ai held out and closed both hands as if gripping a sword.

She pushed off the floor, keeping low and aiming for Iruka's legs. He effortlessly jumped over the swing of both her hands. One of them empty, but the other clutching the sharp Moon Shadow. He landed and she brought both her hands up in a swing. She felt a pulse of chakra wash over her. Iruka let her right hand swing past him, inserting a kunai between him and her left though. Tsukikage was stopped mid swing.

"You've got some fancy hand-work there. An invisible blade and keeping your opponent guessing which hand it's in is a good idea." He grinned at her, not even strained as she tried to push her sword forward. "But a hidden blade won't work on me." Ai felt the wave of chakra pulse again. "I know exactly where it is."

Ai pushed away from him as he swung up his other hand, which held another kunai in it. She continued to backpedal and Iruka let her, this wasn't a fight she'd realistically win, Iruka was more than happy to let it be the training session it was for her and figure out how to apply different strategies. Stopping a fair distance away, she studied him.

That chakra pulse let him see her hidden sword, which reasoned that he was using it as a form of echolocation. They blade may be invisible, but it was still there, his chakra rebounded and told him so. Her sneaky slights-of-hand weren't going to work here. So then, what was?

 _"Besides blowing him up,"_ she thought deadpan.

"Any day now, Ai." He grinned at her.

"I'm thinking!" she defended. Ai shot a look at Abel being a lazy cow by Hayate's side. "A little help," she hissed. The metal cat lifted its head and rattled.

 _"I thought you didn't want me fighting him."_ Came the impression in her mind.

"When did I ever say that?" Iruka raised an eyebrow and glanced at Hayate. Her words were soon followed by another rattle and another impression. This one didn't come as words, but as a flash of Iruka smiling and warmth blooming in her chest. Ai felt heat rush to her face and she just knew she had turned red.

"That is not the case! I do not have a –" she cut herself off before the words finished. She did _not_ have a crush on Iruka. Abel shook his tail in disagreement. "It was months ago!" She finally burst out and Abel shivered in _"self-righteousness,"_ she hissed mentally over his implied feeling. The skeletal cat got up and shook itself anyway, she could feel his amusement rolling in waves, and charged Iruka.

The ninja dodged Abel's swipes, meant more to trip him up than do actual harm. This gave Ai the distraction she wanted and she moved in as well, aiming for his back. Ai felt another pulse of chakra from Iruka hit her. He knew she was coming now and with a twist her blade passed over his head as Abel swipe missed his feet.

This time Iruka backed up, dancing a dozen feet up the wall to put both Abel and her in front of him. "You do work better as a tag team, don't you?"

"That's cheating!" She called. Iruka only smiled at her indignation.

He crouched and pushed off with chakra, turning in mid-air to whip a kunai at her. Ai felt her forearms burn as the seals there tried to activate themselves. _"No,"_ she thought forcefully. _"Not Seth."_ He would have no qualms about going at Iruka to kill. She forced her chakra away, but it wasted the precious little time she had to raise her sword.

Abel clattered his warning. He was too far to deflect it for her. She started to push herself aside, but this one was going to hit and the look she caught on Hayate's face said he knew it too.

A pressure explosion rocked her from her feet and sent the kunai spiraling away. It hit the ground and shattered into a few pieces, having turned brittle from the intense flash of heat it suffered.

"Ai, are you all right?" Hayate was by her side, helping her sit up. Abel kept nudging her back and arm his worry almost overpowering. Iruka approached as well, his concern etched on his face.

"I'm so sorry Ai." He apologized. "I thought you were going to deflect it."

"I'm fine," she groaned, getting her legs under her and rubbing her left forearm.

"What happened?" Hayate asked.

"I panicked," she said, noting Hayate's sharp eyes picking up on her massaging at her arm. His eyes narrowed and darted up to meet her eyes. She shrugged a little. "Wanted to come out and play," she said quietly. Iruka would have still heard her, but he wouldn't know what she meant. Only Hayate knew about Seth and he hadn't been happy when he'd come home and found a new metal pet snake.

He had secretly taught her the premise of a sealing scroll, which they inked onto her forearms and sealed him in there. Seth was aggressive, frighteningly so it turned out, which forced them to hide him away.

The seal wasn't permanent, neither of them liked the idea of tattooing it on, so she made sure to maintain the ink, but because he was so intrinsically bound to her she could still feel him in whatever space he was in and sometimes he fought to be let out to defend her. Her took her defense a little too defensively and interpreted a lot of things as an attack.

Hayate sighed, and helped haul her to her feet. "I think that's enough excitement for the day."

"Sorry I blew things out of proportion," she told both Hayate and Iruka.

The latter smiled and apologized again. "I feel like I'm the one that should be sorry." While Hayate shook his head, hands massaging into her shoulders with a little too much shaking involved in payment for her horrible joke.


	2. Mess Hall

Not very long and kind of ends abruptly, just sort of a goof off, when I was having a brain futz on the main chapter. I suppose you do get some otherwise unknown information?

* * *

 **During the Second Exam.**

 **After Ai leaves the Mess Hall in the 44** **th** **Tower.**

"She's pretty moody, isn't she?" Hayate looked away from Ai leaving the mess hall and moved his gaze to the unenthused speaker. He was greeted by the bored expression of Kakashi, his hands shoved in his pocket. "But, you know, if you cleaned her up a little, taught her some tact, and manners, she'd probably have suitors lined up at your door."

Hayate's eyes narrowed. "You're a little old for her."

Kakashi blinked in surprise. "That's not what I –"

"You're not really her type either." The silver-haired man was definitely off balance now. "And she's allergic to dogs. Literally and figuratively."

"I'm just going to leave now," Kakashi said.

"That's probably for the best," Hayate agreed, eyes narrowed at the older ninja.

Iruka snorted once the jonin was gone. "You can't really blame them for wanting to know more about her," he said, bringing up the fact Kurenai had been there earlier as well. "This is sort of Ai's first _real_ public appearance in the ninja circuit." Iruka rubbed at his scar unconsciously as he thought. "And you did keep her pretty hidden the first few years she was here."

"I know," Hayate sighed, rubbing his head over his bandana-styled hitai-ate. "She just…"

"Different?" Iruka supplied.

"How it all started out for her," he shook his head, "it wasn't easy and didn't get easier. She was literally taken out of the Cloud Village and left halfway through the Land of Frost to die and her first week here was spent with Ibiki asking questions. She was seven, Iruka, and she knew nothing of this land and its ways. Hell, she spent a month convinced she wasn't even from this world and that chakra didn't exist. She was traumatized after whatever sickness she suffered and watching it take the lives of the people she came here with.

"Half the village behaves like she might explode at any moment and take them with her. She acts like everything is fine, but her chakra is volatile, which is just reflecting her metal state. It was getting better," he confessed to Iruka, "but after the Uchiha massacre it went downhill again. One more good shove and she might not be able to pretend she's okay anymore."

Iruka's eyes saddened. He had known some of it about Ai, but he hadn't known how badly it had truly affected her. He leaned forward towards his friend. "Is this all a test for her as well? I know the Hokage said she wouldn't be a ninja under his reign, but has he changed his mind?" Hayate was already shaking his head before Iruka finished.

"No, not to see if she's fit for the life of a ninja, but it is a test. Sort of. When she came to this village I offered to watch out for her, to take responsibility for her actions." He smiled fondly. "She may have her quirks, but I've grown very fond of her over the years. She's been proving herself capable enough to work alongside shinobi. Through this, it is my hope that the Hokage will permit a finalization of a sibling adoption."

Iruka blinked, gaining a smile of his own. "Seriously?" At Hayate's nod he grinned wider and crowed. "Congratulations!" Hayate shushed him, looking around.

"We've talked about it, Ai and I, but I don't want her to know how impending the decision is. I was planning for it to be a surprise, I'll hopefully find out in a few days."

"All right," he agreed.


	3. Training Ground 67

Another shorty. Pretty obvious, but it takes place during the 'training' with Sauske. As I was working on this scene (for the main story) I completely stopped part way through and was like "eeeeeh I'm not sure this is working with the flow" so I chopped it. Some interesting tidbitties dropped here. Though... they've also been dropped in the main story as well.

* * *

 **Training Ground 67**

 **Mountains North of Konoha**

 **1:30am**

Ai couldn't sleep. Not that that was uncommon for her, but she couldn't sleep more than normal. She'd only taken Kakashi up on his offer of camping up here tonight because she was curious if a change in scenery would help.

It hadn't.

So instead of sleeping she had wandered a few dozen feet away from the two snoozing ninja, Abel trailing silently behind her. Ai first began by digging through the rock rubble Sasuke had made with some jutsu attempts. She picked her way through rocks, studying them in the light and checking how much chakra input they could take before they'd weakened enough structurally and crumbled to dust.

She settled for the furthest ditch in the rock, brought to you by Sasuke, as a good place to begin. Meanwhile, Abel set himself upon a taller boulder, giving him a larger field of view.

Ai sat in the dirt and pulled out the pouch she had brought with her today. Contained within was a chisel and a hammer. She set to work chipping off bits of stone and studying them in the moonlight. Which was a poor source despite the clear night, so at times she even brought them up to her mouth to give them a taste.

Abel quivered a soft hum as she licked one, indicating that Kakashi had found her.

"You know, if you're hungry we have food, you don't have to resort to eating rocks."

"I'm not eating them," she half-heartedly defended herself. "I'm tasting the make-up of the rocks. You might not know this, but depending on what it is made up of, it can taste different. There is also the texture as well. If you know what it means you can tell what elements the rock is comprised of. Smell can also work, but for your sake I won't get much deeper into the properties of rocks."

"Are you," he hesitated briefly as if deciding if this train of conversation worth pursuing, "looking for something in particular?"

"Potassium nitrate," Ai answered immediately, turning to look at him as she tossed the pebble in her hand aside. "But I imagine that doesn't mean much to you."

"Accurate deduction," Kakashi deadpanned back at her. "I wouldn't imagine you had an interest in geology."

"It's more of an interest in the chakra amassing abilities of nonorganic material. Why some things hold it better than others. I've heard about natural energy, but I can't find much about it beyond abstract ideas."

"That's because you're a civilian and you don't _need_ to know those things." Ai frowned at that. "You haven't tried experimenting with it, have you?"

"No."

"Good," he snapped out nearly before she'd even finished. "It's dangerous. And highly lethal to anyone that doesn't know what they're doing."

"Have you used it?"

"Never touched the stuff."

"Oh."

Kakashi tucked his hands into his pockets, taking on a slouched appearance. "Does this interest stem from what happened to you?"

"I was told it sounded like it was natural energy that invaded our system. If it's so dangerous, why did I live? Was it just because I was young enough?" Ai shrugged. "It seems like a cheap reason, considering what I saw it do."

"As cliché as this is going to be," Kakashi sighed out, "it may be one of those things we'll never figure out."

Her response was to grunt.

"You should get some sleep, it will be an early wake up tomorrow."

"I have trouble sleeping."

Kakashi leaned back, resting himself on a waist high boulder. "I suppose that's not surprising, giving your background. Have you tried meditation?"

Her eyes shifted away from him. "Hayate taught me, but I'm not very good at it."

The ninja's one visible eye crinkled like he was smiling under his mask. "Maybe you're not good at it because you don't want to be." Ai flinched like he'd hit her. Abel's head twisted to look at Kakashi, staring at him with his empty sockets and grinning saw-teeth, which glittered in the moonlight. "I get it, we all have our reasons for doing things, but you might want to reconsider your _plan_ ," the emphasis on that word was subtle, it still said he thought what she had was anything _but_ a plan, "now that a few key pieces have changed." His tone instantly lightened. "Try to get some rest."

Once Kakashi was gone, Abel slipped from the rock he sat on and approached Ai. He tilted his head to meet her eyes. _What will you do?_ His empty sockets asked as a shiver ran over his body.

"I'm won't let them take me," she stated. "No matter what." Abel's body quivered his agreement and beneath her skin she felt Seth stir.


End file.
